The
Hardwick
Love Story
Janet Roberts
Smashwords Edition Copyright 2012 Janet Roberts
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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The cover photograph was taken by the author
***
Arbella - living in Derbyshire
Arbella Elizabeth was Bess of Hardwick's first grandchild, but controversy surrounded her from the moment of her birth.
The scheming Bess, renown in England for her lavish buildings, wanted her family famous for at least a thousand years, so she was very careful about arranging all her children's' weddings. Her own marriage to William Cavendish had produced three sons, Henry, William and Charles and five daughters, Frances, Mary and Elizabeth, with Temperance and Lucrece dying young.
By 1574 Elizabeth was still unmarried so when Bess heard that the Countess of Lennox and her son were travelling to Scotland, she wrote inviting her to break her long journey at nearby Rufford. Explaining her decision to accept the invitation, Margaret Lennox noted that it was
‘not one mile distant out of my way….and my lady meeting me herself upon the way, I could not refuse it.’
At Rufford the Countess fell ill and
‘being sickly … rested her at Rufford five days, and kept most her bedchamber.’
On the 5th November 1574 Bess’ 3rd husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury had the difficult task of informing Queen Elizabeth I of the situation
‘.. the young man fell into liking with my wife’s daughter before intended, and such liking was between them as my wife tells me she makes no doubt of a match….’
He hastened to add
‘..this comes unlooked for without thanks to me..’
As expected, the Queen was furious, for Charles Stuart was the younger brother of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots. She was now imprisoned in Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire, guarded by Bess’ husband the Earl of Shrewsbury. Charles was also directly related to the English throne, through Henry VIII’s elder sister, Margaret Tudor.
Whilst he was considered too sickly to survive long, the concern was regarding any heirs. They might be a threat to the throne. To the Queen fury, by the time she received the news the 20-year-old Elizabeth Cavendish and 19-year-old Charles Stuart were already married.
Both Bess and the Countess were summoned to appear at Court. Of Elizabeth Lennox the French ambassador reported.
‘She fears greatly the indignation of Queen Elizabeth her mistress, and that she will send her to the Tower on account of the marriage of her son. Still, she relies on friends, whom she hopes will save her from this blow.’
In fact she was sent to the Tower for a few months, whilst Bess escaped with a verbal telling-off from the Queen.
The
following year, 1575 Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter who was
christened Arbella
Elizabeth.
Her godparents were her mother’s siblings, Charles and Mary.
Arbella’s Royal Connections
Great, great granddaughter of Henry VII
Niece of Mary Queen of Scots
Cousin of James VI of Scotland/James I of England
Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned in nearby Wingfield Manor sent a gift which Arbella’s mother acknowledged, thanking her for remembering them
‘both with a token, and in my lady’s gracious letter.’
Within 18 months of the marriage Charles Stuart had died of consumption. He was just 21.
In 1582 at Sheffield Castle Arbella’s mother Elizabeth died. The Earl of Shrewsbury notified the Queen of the death of his stepdaughter saying that
‘sundry times did she make her most earnest and humble prayer to the Almighty for her Majesty’s most happy estate ….and lowly beseeched her Majesty to have pity upon her poor orphaned Arbella Stewarde…her assured trust was that her Majesty would continue the same accustomed goodness and bounty to the poor child she left..’
He concluded with the words
‘My wife taketh my daughter Lenox’s death so grievously that she neither doth nor can think of anything but of lamenting and weeping.’
Five days before she died, and in a shaky hand, Elizabeth had written her Will. She asked Bess to be Arbella’s guardian. The old lady was in her 60’s and could have sent the child away for an education. Instead Arbella was to have an isolated childhood in rural Derbyshire. Bess was soon writing to Walsingham in London, who was Principal Secretary to the Queen
‘being near well towards seven years old, she is of very great towardness to learn anything, and I very careful of her good education, as if she were my own and only child,…’
Bess employed tutors to teach Arbella Latin, French and Italian, as well as musical instruments such as the lute. She also danced, embroidered and for relaxation hunted and hawked. She would have received instruction in the Protestant religion. In later life her love of learning led her to study Hebrew so that she could examine the original sources of the Bible and she read Homer in Greek.
All this was to in preparation for a judicious marriage. When Arbella was 8 she was promised in marriage to Robert, the Earl of Leicester’s 4-year-old son. However, the ‘noble imp’, as his father called him, died within a few months.
The following year Sir Edward Wootton was sent on a special mission to Scotland. He was to see the 19-year-old King James and raise the question of marriage. There were two possible brides, a Danish princess or Arbella. James eventually chose Anne of Denmark.
Shortly after Mary Queen of Scots’ execution the 12-year-old Arbella was presented at Court for the first time. Sir Walter Raleigh
‘wished she were fifteen years old’
Arbella appears to have found it hard to settle back in rural Derbyshire having experienced the excitement of London. A telltale servant at Wingfield Manor wrote the following report to Bess:
‘My Lady Arbella, at eight of the clock this night, was merry, and eats her meat well, but she went not to the school these six days, therefore I would be glad of your ladyship’s coming, if there were no other reason.’
During Arbella’s teenage years, the question of a politically expedient marriage was much discussed, usually quite without her knowledge or opinion on the matter. As early as 1587, when Arbella was only 12, Queen Elizabeth had remarked to the French Ambassador
‘Look to her well: she will one day be even as I am, but I shall have gone before.’
This statement, when she hinted at Arbella being a possible successor, she knew would be repeated around Europe.
At the time England and Spain were enemies, both over lucrative trade routes, and regarding the Netherlands – a Catholic-dominated state undergoing a Protestant revolution. Elizabeth sympathised with the Protestants, so sent an army to Europe to join her Flemish allies, but resented the heavy financial burden, and was anxious to find a peaceful solution.
One possibility was to marry Arbella to the Duke of Parma’s son, Cardinal Rainutio. He had a tenuous claim to the English throne, going back some 200 years, to John of Gaunt. The Pope was enthusiastic about the match and quite ready to absolve Rainutio from his vows of celibacy. Talk of this marriage proposal, which was purely for political ends, was discussed for years.
Then in August 1591 an agent working in Europe sent the following request
‘touching the Lady Arbella, I pray you send me her picture for there is someone very desirous to see it.’
It was to be a miniature so that it could be carried easily in the Ambassador’s pocket. As the artist was to be the Court painter Nicholas Hilliard it must have been carried out with the full knowledge of Queen Elizabeth.
Bess and Arbella set off for London, together with Bess’ sons William and Charles Cavendish, and their wives. So many servants were required, the party numbered around 40.
Johannes Jansson’s ‘Novus Atlas’ 1647
The journey to London took 7 days and church bells rang out from market towns on the route to welcome the travellers. Musicians entertained them at overnight Inns. Once in London they stayed in Chelsea for 8 months, with sheep and oxen being driven up from one of Bess’ estates to feed the large household.
Household accounts for 1592 show
‘Given 27th of July to one Mr Hilliard for the drawing of one picture, forty shillings. Given unto the same Mr Hilliard, twenty shillings.’
The additional money probably meant that Bess was well pleased with the finished portrait.
Whilst
in London Bess used the opportunity to purchase items for her latest
building, Hardwick Hall.
Hardwick Hall Derbyshire T. Allom/F.J. Havell, c1837
Hand coloured steel engraved view 6 x 3 ¾ inches
The seventeen tapestry hangings
showing the story of Gideon still hang in the Long Gallery. She also
bought four hangings for the state bedchamber in addition to spending
over £1200 on gold and silver plate.
It also was an opportunity to buy new clothes, perfumed gloves and Spanish leather shoes. Nearly £200 went on jewellery for Court visits including
‘a pair of bracelets set with diamonds, pearls and rubies’
which may have been for Arbella.
Within a short time of the party’s return to Derbyshire news arrived on the death of the Duke of Parma. His son was now of no significance and the marriage proposal was dropped.
Bess of Hardwick
Countess of Shrewsbury
National Trust Photographic Library
Arbella’s life now became even more isolated and restrained than before, as there had been several incidents that caused Bess to worry that her granddaughter might become the victim of a kidnap attempt. In fact she was
‘much troubled to think that so wicked and mischievous practices should be devised to entrap my poor Arbell and me, but I put my trust in the Almighty, and will use such diligent care as I doubt not to prevent whatsoever shall be attempted by any wicked persons against the poor child.’
Figure 1
In order to ensure security, Arbella became a virtual prisoner in Hardwick with Bess claiming
‘Arbell walks not late; at such time as she shall take the air it shall be near the house, and well attended on: she goeth not to anybody’s house at all; I see her almost every hour in the day; she liethy in my bed-chamber.’
Arbella was 22 and her grandmother about 70 when they moved into the newly completed Hardwick Hall. The restrictions must have been most irksome, for Bess’ Chaplain, the Rev Starkey noticed that Arbella
‘oftentimes being at her books would break forth into tears.’
Bess hoped the Queen would either arranged Arbella’s marriage or take her into service at Court. The New Year gifts of 1601 were intended to prompt a royal decision. By mid-January a thank you note came from the Lady of the Bedchamber regarding the gifts, especially a lawn scarf embroidered with silver and coloured silks, made by Arbella.
‘Her Majesty … hath returned a token to my Lady Arbella, which is not so good as I could wish it, nor so good as her ladyship deserveth.’
Soon afterwards Bess drew up her Will. Chatsworth was to go her son Henry, whilst William received Hardwick. As she had fallen out with Charles and Mary’s husband Gilbert Talbot, she left them nothing, except that
‘I pray God to bless them.’
She was to be more generous to her granddaughter
‘I give unto my very loving grandchild Arbella Stuart my crystal glass framed with silver and gilt and set with lapis lazuli and agate; and one sable, the head being of gold set with stones, and a white ermine sable, the head being of gold enamelled; and all my pearl and jewels, which I shall have at my decease, except such as shall be otherwise bequeathed in this my last Will; and I give her a thousand pounds.’
By the time Arbella was in her mid-20’s relations between the two women had become strained. Arguments were frequent and Arbella accused Bess of using
‘despiteful and disgraceful words.’
The relationship between the two women continued to deteriorate. Arbella was in her mid-20's when she dreamt up a wild escape plan, which failed.
Arbella discussed her situation with her uncle William, who felt
‘in duty and discretion to disclose all unto the old lady.’ who, not too surprisingly was ‘much discomforted’ Bess immediately wrote to Queen Elizabeth asking her to take Arbella off her hands. The reply took three weeks to arrive at Hardwick, and to both women’s dismay, Arbella was to remain there. For a while Arbella went on hunger strike and Bess wrote
‘I am wearied of my life and therefore humbly beseech her Majesty to have compassion on me’
Bess’ son Henry felt sympathy for Arbella and tried to stage an escape plan, but the old lady watched from an upstairs window, and the servants refused to let Arbella pass through the gates. Sir Henry Bronker, a Queen's commissioner who had investigated the earlier escape plan, and was again involved and concluded that Arbella should be removed from Bess’ care
‘so settled is her mislike of the old lady’ and that Bess ‘groweth exceeding weary of her charge, beginneth to be weak and sickly by breaking her sleep and cannot endure long this vexation’.
A few days after this Bess added a codicil to her Will, which excluded both Arbella and her son Henry from being beneficiaries.
On
the 24th
March 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died. At the last moment she named her
successor as ‘our cousin in Scotland’.
James IV of Scotland travelled down to London to become James I of
England. On the way he stopped with Gilbert and Mary Talbot at
Worksop. Mary was Arbella’s aunt and godmother as well as staunch
friend and supporter. She took the opportunity to discuss her
niece’s future with the King
Portrait of James by Nicholas Hilliard
from the period 1603–09
One of his first minutes read
‘for as much as we are desirous to free our cousin the Lady Arbella Stuart from that unpleasant life which she hath lead in the house of her grandmother with whose severity and age she, being a young lady could hardly agree.’
***
Arbella moved to Court, to start adjusting to a very different way of life. The studious Arbella wrote to her Uncle Gilbert
‘I daily see some of the fairest among us, misled and willingly or unwillingly ensnared by the Prince of Darkness.’ She described Court life ‘as this most ridiculous world’
In 1605 Bess was nearly 80, and reported to be unwell. Arbella visited breaking her journey at Leicester
‘where she was entertained by the Corporation with wine and sugar at an expense of 23s. 2d.’
To ensure a welcome from Bess she took a letter from King James with her. She also took a patent for a peerage for anyone she wished to nominate. She chose Bess’ son William. In return Bess sent her back to London with £300 and a gold cup worth £100. Two years later Gilbert and Mary Talbot were to visit Hardwick and find
‘a lady of great years, of great wealth, of great wit, which yet still remains.
Bess died on 13th February 1608 her exact age unknown but she was probably around 81. Arbella was travelling north to Derbyshire at the time, and arrived four days after her grandmother’s death. She stayed several weeks at Hardwick, but missed the funeral at Derby Cathedral, probably because Bess laid in state for an usually long three months.
Arbella would have liked to have left Court, but the King preferred to watch her activities. At 33, without a dowry, with little money and with royal connections she was in an unenviable position.
Then at Christmas 1608, at a cost of £200 she bought her own home for the first time, a town house in Blackfriars. It was just a short boat trip down the Thames from the Court. She wrote to her Uncle Gilbert
‘For want of a nunnery I have for a while retired myself to the Friars..’
However, it was common knowledge that she was
‘living far from Court, in great melancholy, both on account of the little esteem in which she is held, and because her income is insufficient.’
Detail of a full-length portrait of Arbella in her mid-thirties. (Studio of P. van Somer, c.1610)
Reproduced by permission of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Warminster, Wilts. Gt Britain.
She pleaded directly with James who eventually responded in 1610 by giving her
‘a cupboard of plate better than £200 for a New Year’s gift and 1000 marks to pay her debts.’
Arbella
also obtained a promise from the king that she might marry whom she
pleased, provided the suitor was a subject within the kingdom, and
not a foreigner.
Early in the New Year William Seymour, grandson of the Earl of Hertford began to visit.
He was 22 and she was 35.
Like her he was studious, and had a BA from Oxford University and was described as
‘loving his book above all other exercise...conversant both in the Latin and Greek languages’
The King heard of the friendship and at the beginning of February 1610 both were summoned before the Privy Council.
‘Lady Arbella spoke at length, denying her guilt and insisting on her unhappy plight…She was required to beg the King’s pardon, but replied that seeing herself deserted she had imagined that she could not be accused if she sought a husband of her own rank. All the same, if error she had made she humbly begged pardon.’
William submitted a letter in which he wrote regarding the King
‘..I will never attempt anything which I shall have certain foreknowledge will be displeasing unto him……there is neither promise of marriage, contract, or any other engagement whatsoever between her Ladyship and myself…’
William may have been sincere about this, but Arbella certainly had no intention of ending this precious relationship. Perhaps they corresponded secretly, for on June 21 William visited his friend Rodney and asked him to act as witness to their marriage.
The ceremony took place at Arbella’s home at 4 in the morning, the 6 witnesses, mostly her servants; being told incorrectly, it was ‘of the King’s consent.’
Their secret lasted just 17 days and then William was sent to The Tower of London. Arbella’s arrest warrant ordered Sir Thomas Parry to keep her under house arrest at his home in Lambeth. From here Arbella wrote to the King
‘I do most heartily lament my hard fortune that I should offend your Majesty…And though your Majesty’s neglect of me, my good liking of this gentleman that is my husband,..and drew me to a contract before I acquainted your Majesty..I humbly beseech your Majesty to consider how impossible it was for me to imagine it could be offensive unto your Majesty, having few days before given me your Royal consent to bestow myself on any subject……these 7 years that I have lived in your Majesty’s house, I could not conceive that your Majesty regarded my marriage at all;’
She also wrote to William
‘I am exceeding sorry to hear you have not been well. I pray you let me know truly how you do, and what was the cause of it, for I am not satisfied with the reason Smith gives for it..No separation but that deprives me of the comfort of you; for wheresoever you be, or in what state soever you are, it sufficeth me you are mine…Be well, and I shall account myself happy in being your faithful loving wife, ‘ Arbella’.
Clearly the servants had sympathy for the young lovers, for not only did they write, but met occasionally. As the King's fury was both at their disobedience in continuing the relationship, and also a fear that they might produce a child who would be a possible threat to the throne, he reacted immediately when he realised what was going on. In January 1611
‘Lady Arbella is called before the Lords at Westminster – that she shall be sent to Durham, and there committed and confined to that Bishop’s charge, with intent that she and her husband shall not come together..’
Arbella was horrified at this punishment. She had never been a traveller and described Durham as being ‘clean out of the world’
Highgate was the first stop, just a few miles into the journey. Arbella was in such a distressed state that the physician, Dr Moundford, who took ‘careful and diligent pains about her’ declared her unfit to proceed. So she remained at Highgate until March, when King James, suspicious that she was feigning illness, sent his own physician, Dr Hammond, to examine her. He reported that
‘she is assuredly very weak, her pulse dull and melancholy…her countenance very pale and wan; nevertheless, she was free from fever or any actual sickness.’ He recommended that she should not travel for 4 weeks until
‘God restored her to some better health, both of body and mind.’
On the 21st March Arbella was moved the six miles to Barnet to the home of Sir James Crofts.
Reports of her poor state of health, when mostly she lay in bed, extended her stay until the 6th May. She was allowed visitors, including her aunt Mary Talbot who smuggled her considerable sums of money under the pretext of paying off her debts before going to Durham. In fact together they worked out a daring escape plan.
Two days before the journey to Durham, in the middle of the afternoon, Arbella disguised herself as a man, maybe telling the servants she was paying a last visit to her husband. Accompanied by a servant, Mr Markham, they walked the mile and half to where saddled horses were waiting for them. Arbella’s lack of exercise over the past 3 months meant she arrived so faint and weak that she could hardly mount and the stableman was to recall
‘The gentleman will hardly reach London.’
They rode to a tavern in Blackwall, where she was to meet William, but he was nowhere in sight. Afterr an hour and half’s anxious wait, and to the considerable concern of her servant, Arbella was forced to set off without William in a boat with ‘a good pair of oars’.
On reaching Leigh they were unable to find the French ship they had arranged to sail on. A large bribe was offered to another captain to change his route from Berwick to Calais, but it was refused. Whilst he did point out the ship they wanted his suspicions about the party had been aroused.
By now the tide was against them, and it was two hours before they could sail.
Meanwhile William, also disguised, waited until a cart carrying wood arrived at the Tower and then ‘walked alone without suspicion from his lodging, following this cart as it returned.’
His faithful friend Rodney was waiting with a boat for him, but the pair waited till 8 o’clock to sail down the Thames. They then travelled straight to Leigh but Arbella had already sailed. They paid £40 for a collier to take them across the Channel to France.
In London it was soon realised that the pair had escaped and immediately a proclamation was issued warning people not to give aid to
‘the Lady Arbella and William Seymour who ..have found means to break prison and escape with an intent to transport themselves into foreign parts.’
Arbella’s ship arrived within sight of Calais but again she insisted on waiting for William. There the Adventure captained by Sir William Monson found them. Thirteen shots were fired before a party boarded the small craft, armed with shot and pikes. Arbella and all her party were arrested. She was returned to London, but let it be known that she was
‘not so sorry for her own restraint as she should be glad if Mr Seymour might escape, whose welfare she protesteth to affect much more than her own.’
At the time of her capture the sum of £868 and a parcel of gold and her jewels had been taken from her to defray the expenses involved in her capture. Also imprisoned was her aunt Mary Talbot who was accused of assisting Arbella in her escape.
Arbella became deeply depressed describing herself as ‘..the most wretched and unfortunate creature that ever lived..’ She realised that she was unlikely to ever be released from the Tower. She wrote
‘I dare to die…if there be no other way.’
During the autumn of 1614 she took to her bed. She refused to allow the doctors to examine her or even to feel her pulse, and declined all medicine. Dying, even in the unhealthy Tower was, however, a slow process and it was a year before Arbella died on September 25 1615.
Dr Moundford carried out the post-mortem, which found no sign of disease noting only that the body was extremely thin. In a plain coffin the body was taken down the Thames at midnight and placed in the vault of Mary Queen of Scots in Westminster Abbey. Her only memorial is her name carved into a paving stone. Bishop Goodman explained the lack of ceremony as
‘because to have a great funeral for one dying out of the King’s favour would have reflected upon the King’s honour.’
All her life had been restricted because of her close connection to the English throne. Bess thought she had achieved the ultimate status but
a popular ballad of the time accurately described her grandchild as
‘Fair Arabella, child of woe
For many a day had sat and sighed,
And as shee heard the waves arise,
And as shee heard the bleake windes roare,
As fast did heave her heartfelte sighes,
And still so fast her teares did poure!
***
William Seymour did escape to France. Sailing later than Arbella the wind prevented his party from reaching Calais and instead they arrived in Ostend. Immediately William sent a messenger along the coast to ‘hearken after the arrival of his lady.’ On learning of her capture he wrote requesting that he and Arbella should be allowed to live quietly abroad but received no reply.
A few months after Arbella’s death, being considered of no political importance, he was allowed to return to England, where he became Chancellor of Magdalen College, Oxford. He married the Earl of Essex’s daughter.
One of his daughters was named Arbella.
***
Discover other titles by Janet Roberts at Smashwords.com:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/99918
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104012
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/107329
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108243
My blogs are:
http://soonoutthere.blogspot.com/2012/01/hardwick-love-story-e-book.html http://nottinghamshirenotes.blogspot.com/